


Awaken

by Awakening5



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Dream Sharing, F/M, Force Coma, Force-Sensitive Finn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-13 05:22:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7964077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awakening5/pseuds/Awakening5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey arrives back on the Resistance Base to learn that Finn hasn't woken yet. So she decides to go back for him, and enters his dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Awaken

The creaky lowering of the Falcon's ramp was not a fitting prelude to Luke Skywalker joining the Resistance fighters. But Rey smiled as the troops cheered upon their first glimpse of the famed Jedi. Luke's reaction to the attention was measured until he spotted his sister, the General.

Rey flinched as she felt his pain and guilt through the Force. Glancing quickly at Leia, Rey knew she felt it, too. But her hands opened up towards Luke and she gave a light nod, as if to say, "Let's not dwell on this."

And Luke went to his sister, whom he hadn't seen in nearly seven years, and they hugged tightly. Rey's heart warmed at the sight, before she suddenly felt very alone. She glanced around for someone—anyone else—that she might know. Truly, she was looking for one person in particular.

Instead, it was Poe who made his way towards her. "Welcome back, Rey," he said warmly.

Admittedly, she had only had one or two conversations with the man. But he had a way about him that put her at ease. Not to mention their shared love of BB-8. But their previous conversations had always centered around _him_.

"How's Finn?" Rey asked, trying not to let her fear show in her voice.

Poe's head dropped. "He still hasn't woken up."

Rey felt confusion and fear sweep through her. "They said he'd be fine!" she said as she set off at a quick pace, Poe hot on her trail.

"He is," Poe said hurriedly, and Rey shot him a look to explain himself. "That's why it's so confusing that he hasn't woken up. His back is healed, his vitals are great. Hell, he hasn't even lost any weight in his slumber."

They neared the medical bay and Rey threw the door open.

It was as if Rey had gone back in time. As if the month she had spent with Luke had never happened. He lay there, calm, lightly breathing, just like the day she had bid him farewell.

"Finn," she let out softly as she went to his bedside. Immediately she took his hand in hers and ran her other hand along his face. _Why won't you wake up?_

"You never said he was sensitive to the Force," came her master's voice from behind her.

Rey turned her head so sharply she may have strained her neck. Luke stood at the room's opening with Leia at his side. "Sensitive to the Force?" Rey repeated. "I can't feel it."

It was obvious with Leia, and unbelievably strong with Luke. She had known immediately who the two of them were. How could she not sense the power within Finn? But one look at Leia told Rey that the General hadn't sensed it either.

"Perhaps because you met him before you were in tune with the Force," Luke instructed. "But more likely is that the Force has been suppressed in this poor, young man. I can hardly feel it, though I'm not sure if it is from the coma or something else."

"Can you help him?" Rey asked desperately.

Luke closed his eyes calmly, and Rey cursed her lack of focus for not once thinking of the Force since entering the room. After a short time, Luke opened his eyes. "I think he might need a friendly face more than an invasive stranger."

It took a beat for Rey to realize what he was saying. "I don't...what does he need? How can I..."

But Luke just slowly shook his head. "You're asking the wrong person the wrong questions."

Then, without any more explanation, he backed out of the room, sending a meaningful look at Poe and Leia, who followed him out.

Rey turned her attention back to Finn, clearly unaffected by the goings-on in his tent. She gripped his hand tighter and closed her eyes, feeling for the Force.

While inexperienced in meditation and understanding exactly what the Force tried to say or do, Rey had grown more comfortable with the mysterious power over the past month. She steadied her breathing, calmed her worried heart, and _felt_.

It was a unique experience—almost like seeing. But with eyes closed, it clearly had nothing to do with sight. She felt Finn's skin in her hand, but more powerfully, and even more real in many ways, she felt his soul. It thrummed in her mind's eye, weaving in circles out in front of her.

Finn was tortured, conflicted, imprisoned. She reached out through the Force, attempting to calm his wretched soul, but there was nothing she could do from here. Her eyes opened and she looked sadly at her best friend, whom she'd known for all of a day. But he'd changed her life. He'd cared. He'd come back for her, as no one else ever had.

She gently pushed him over in his bed before climbing in after him. She lay on her side, getting situated comfortably. She was close to Finn, now. She looked at the smooth skin of his face, the gentle rise and fall of his chest, and felt a sad smile come to her face.

She hadn't realized how desperate she was for his smile, his extremely emotive features, until she lay here, teased by an emotionless Finn. She gently brushed her fingers along his face.

"It's alright, Finn. I'm coming back for you."

And she closed her eyes again, leaving her hand across his chest. She reached out once more in the Force. But rather than attempt to calm his tortured soul, she joined it. Fear, panic, confusion as she had only experienced as Kylo Ren's prisoner swam around her, threatening to bring her into as lost a state as Finn.

But she knew who she was and who she'd come for. And before long, the dark confusion began to morph into something substantial.

She was in Maz's castle, standing in front of Finn as she had a month ago. The scene looked so familiar, but quite different at the same time. Details of their surroundings had changed from her memory, and Finn's words were altered from how she remembered them.

"I'm a Stormtrooper," Finn said, shame in his eyes. "But I wouldn't kill for them. I _couldn't._ "

"Finn," Rey said immediately. "I know; it's fine. You need to wake up."

But Finn acted as though she hadn't spoken—or at least that she hadn't spoken the words she actually did.

"Come with me," he encouraged, hope replacing the shame. "We can leave this whole fight behind us. Find some peace somewhere where the First Order won't chase us."

"No," Rey said, grabbing Finn. "You need to come back with _me_."

Finn grew sad.  "Take care of yourself, Rey. Just...please be safe."

And he turned from her, and Rey knew she had failed. She staggered backwards as the scene shifted before her. She backed out of the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, stumbling into the main lobby.

"That was incredible!" Finn said as he rushed up to her from the turret. His hands gently grabbed at her arms, and Rey enjoyed the touch.

"Finn!" Rey said, surprised that she was still with him in his slumber.

"How did you learn to pilot like that?" he asked, admiration in his eyes.

Rey remembered now, when they had destroyed the Tie Fighters together. She had reflected on it a great many times, knowing that this was one of the first obvious times the Force had directed her. "You were great, too!" Rey said, caught up in the memory and forgetting her purpose for a moment.

"You totally set me up," Finn said excitedly. "I had no chance of taking him down, otherwise."

Rey felt her mouth drop as she grabbed Finn's hands. Realization struck her, and she wondered how she'd never considered it before. "The Force didn't just tell me how to fly...it told me how to fly for _you_."

Finn's eyes grew confused. "The Force?"

"We connected, Finn. How did I not see this before?" Rey smiled, and Finn smiled through his confusion almost as a reaction to her. "I saw—or felt—what you were seeing, what you needed."

Finn shook his head. "Wait, how do you know my name? I don't even know who you are..."

And the scene broke again, Finn finally having realized that this wasn't his memory. Rey began to understand the world she was in now.

"Who are you?" a small boy asked as Rey's world morphed around her once more. The architecture of the room was familiar, even if she hadn't seen it before. This was Starkiller base.

And the small boy was Finn. He sat outside of a closed door, worry evident on his young features. He looked to be about nine years old.

"My name is Rey," Rey said cautiously, not wanting to scare Finn's subconscious into another memory. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm in trouble," the boy responded, guilt in his eyes. "I disobeyed Phasma's orders. _Captain_ Phasma," he added hurriedly, flinching in worry over his error.

"What did you do?"

"Slip was struggling with the training course, so I stayed back to help him out," Finn said. Rey thought he was unbelievably cute, the way his legs rocked under his chair, unable to reach the floor. "But we both finished the course in time, so I don't see what the problem was. You would think teamwork would be a good thing."

Rey moved over to the boy carefully. "What is your punishment?" Rey asked.

"Reconditioning," Finn responded. "I've had to come here more than anyone else in my troop. I _hate_ it," he said angrily. Then he looked up at her fearfully. "You won't say anything, will you?"

Rey shook her head quickly, but felt an odd pull in the Force. It was too late. The scene began shifting once more before her. Young Finn faded from view, and a view familiar to her reappeared. But she had not seen this before. She had not been conscious.

"No!" she heard a distant shout. She lifted her head up in Kylo Ren's arms. He was carrying her to his shuttle. She moved freely in his arms, and found that he paid her no heed.

"Rey!" Finn's voice sounded from afar. Rey slipped out of Kylo Ren's arms before he entered the shuttle. But, like before, Kylo Ren moved forward, as if he still had her in his arms.

Rey stood as the shuttle door closed behind her. Finn came sprinting into view, a look of utter panic—of tremendous loss—blanketed his face.  Then he saw her, and his fear morphed into relief. Rey couldn't believe the emotional toll her abduction had taken on him.

But they had bonded on the Falcon. Not just in friendship—though that had been unbelievably nice for Rey. No, they had bonded in the Force, and Rey was only now beginning to understand what that meant.

Now she knew why she'd been unable to get Finn out of her mind during her time away with Luke. She'd attributed it to concern for his well-being. But it ran much deeper. He'd become a part of her, as she had become a part of him.

"Rey," he said softly, through gulps of air from his sprint to her. "How did you escape? You didn't escape."

"I know,"  Rey responded softly, knowing her time in this memory was growing short. "Don't be afraid, Finn. I'll stay here as long as you'll let me."

Finn shook his head, and Rey felt the Force pull at her once more. "Let you?" Finn's voice grew dim as the scene changed before her eyes. "I never want to be away from you again."

They were back on the Falcon. Just the two of them, and Rey knew immediately when this was. The Garbage Ship was about to spring a dangerous leak, but Finn was also about to tell her something.

"Listen, Rey," Finn started, and just as expected, a loud noise erupted behind Rey. This time, she felt no urgency to fix the ship, though. "What's that?" Finn asked worriedly.

"Oh, don't worry," Rey responded, putting Finn at ease. "It's just the motivator kicking into gear. It'll quiet down in a few minutes. What were you saying, Finn?"

Finn looked relieved at her first words, but grew anxious at her question. After a brief hesitation, he came clean. "I'm not with the Resistance, Rey."

Rey knew this, of course. But having experienced a few dream sequences now, she felt it more important to keep the conversation going than to cut off his confession. "You're not?"

Finn sighed. "You must hate me for lying...but the way you looked at me when you thought I was Resistance...I've never been looked at like that."

"Like what?" Rey prompted.

"Like I matter," Finn said quietly. "Like being unique or special was a good thing."

"It's a great thing, Finn. Why wouldn't it be a good thing?" Rey asked. Her words rang in the silence that followed. She watched Finn slowly smile at her—then it all changed.

Finn looked frightened suddenly, like he heard a noise. "Rey?" he asked. And this time he wasn't speaking to a girl he'd just met. He was speaking to a girl he'd rescued from Starkiller base. His eyes were filled with recognition, and Rey felt a pull at the Force again.

"I'm here, Finn!" Rey shouted desperately. He had let it in, ever so briefly. The Force. "Please wake up!"

But his confused and overwhelmed eyes disappeared, as did the scene before her.

She was lying on the cold, frozen ground. Finn had his back to her, though she felt lingering warmth on her body. He had just been holding her unconscious body; now, he faced Kylo Ren by himself.

"That lightsaber. It belongs to me!" came an angry, uncontrolled voice.

"Then come get it," Finn responded, oddly more focused than Kylo Ren. And Rey felt it—the Force guiding Finn as he stepped forward to battle his enemy. Finn was outmatched in skill, training, and understanding of the Force. But he was actually letting it in, and was able to hold his own for a time.

Kylo Ren made no mention of his opponent tapping in to the Force. Was he afraid of awakening the Force in someone else, as he had done for her? Did he not feel it—too caught up in his own soul's torment? She had spoken at length with Luke about her own fight with Kylo Ren. The only reason she had won is because Kylo Ren wasn't able to tap in to the Force as readily as usual, no matter how much pain he caused himself by beating his wound. The man was torn up inside; how could he not be after murdering his own father?

In any case, Finn was finally letting the Force in, as evidenced by him landing a blow to Kylo Ren's shoulder. Rey watched from her spot on the ground as he fought valiantly to protect her, feeling his simultaneous acceptance and rejection of the Force.

Eventually, he lost—but Rey began to understand what was happening to him. The scene changed once more.

He sat on his bed, still in Stormtrooper armor. It was slightly jarring for Rey to see him dressed like that. He had a helmet at his side, a handprint of blood smeared across the front. Rey stepped forward slowly.

"I've orders to go to reconditioning," Finn said to her. Rey was surprised he was talking to her. Did he know her?

"You're not going." Rey said, a comment more than a question.

"I can't...it doesn't work on me," Finn said. "I learned when I was young to fake it, to act as though the pain, the propaganda, the prodding—that it worked."

Rey nodded. "You've always been able to resist it."

"I don't want to, Rey!" he said. "I've been living a lie my whole life, preparing to do things that my heart tells me is wrong! And now, my first mission, and I can't keep living the lie. Why can't they just fix me!"

"You're not broken, Finn," Rey pleaded. "They've been blocking your Force sensitivity your whole life. But your muted connection has kept you... _you_."

"I don't even know who I am, Rey. I don't even know how I know you, or why I'm telling you all this."

"You're Finn," Rey said, and sat on the bed next do him. She took his gloved hand in her own. She felt her Force bond with him hum through their contact. "You're my friend."

His eyes slowly met hers. "I don't know what to do."

"You've got a choice," Rey said. "You can allow them to recondition you, mute the Force in you once more. Or you can escape with me."

Finn stared at her. "I'm scared," he said honestly. "Why can't I just be another number?"

"That's the First Order talking," Rey said softly. "But you're not another number, Finn. And I'm _so_ happy for it."

The Force began to pull at Rey again. She didn't have much more time here—and something told her she wouldn't get another chance. Finn knew what his choice was.

"Okay," he said, his forehead wrinkled in worry. "If I can make you happy."

Rey felt a smile break across her face. She reached up to cradle his face. "Close your eyes, Finn." He obeyed. "And let it in."

She felt their bond hum more clearly than ever. She felt him reach out, inexperienced but willing. She lifted them together, out of his sleep, out of his tortured mind. He was leaving the First Order behind, now. He believed, perhaps for the first time, that he was someone. Not a failing number in a long string of code. Not a dysfunctional machine.

He was Finn. Her friend.

He shifted under her, and made a low moan. Rey slowly opened her eyes to the room that held a comatose Finn. Her head rested on his shoulder, and she glanced up at his face, now scrunched up in confusion and perhaps pain. Even that, she preferred to his emotionless coma.

Slowly, his own eyes opened, and he glanced down at her, cuddled up against him. She ought to feel a little embarrassed. But she didn't. Their connection hummed easily between them, and a smile came to Finn's face. Rey smiled back.

"You came back for me," he said, his voice coarse and out of practice.

"Always," she replied, truthfully. Finn slowly wrapped his arm around her tightly. He bent down and kissed her forehead, prompting her to nestle up more closely against him.

Though he'd been laying there for a month, neither felt the desire to move for some time. Eventually, they would go celebrate with the Resistance. Soon, they'd both be training under Master Luke. One day, they might face off against Kylo Ren once more.

But for now, they wanted only each other, and an embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay...so I wrote this a LONG time ago. I think I didn't post it because it's a little all over the place. But that was also my intention, given the dream nature of it all. I don't know. I love the meeting-in-dreams trope, and hoped to do something a bit different than what I've read. Hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
